Various types of gaming machines have been developed with different features to captivate and maintain player interest. In general, a gaming machine allows a player to play a game in exchange for a wager. Depending on the outcome of the game, the player may be entitled to an award which is paid to the player by the gaming machine, normally in the form of currency or game credits. Gaming machines may include flashing displays, lighted displays, or sound effects to capture a player's interest in a gaming device.
Another important feature of maintaining player interest in a gaming machine includes providing the player with many opportunities to win awards, such as cash or prizes. For example, in some slot machines, the display windows show more than one adjacent symbol on each reel, thereby allowing for multiple-line betting. Feature games of various types have been employed to reward players above the amounts normally awarded on a standard game pay schedule. Generally, such feature games are triggered by predetermined events such as one or more appearances of certain combinations of indicia in a primary game. In order to stimulate interest, feature games are typically set to occur at a gaming machine on a statistical cycle based upon the number of primary game plays.
Some gaming machine games today include one or more progressive prize awards. In some configurations, the progressive prize may have a small probability of a player winning it; thus making it possible to have a larger progressive prize. In other game configurations, the progressive prize may be a small amount; thus allowing the player patron to win the progressive prize more frequently. In most typical game configurations, the player wins the progressive prize as a result of a specific game outcome within the primary or main game.
One way to make a feature game more attractive to players is to introduce an aspect of player skill to the game. Historically, skill-based gaming has been a niche product. One reason for this has been a lack of uniform regulation; each jurisdiction where gaming is allowed has quite different standards concerning skill-based gaming. In some jurisdictions it is banned altogether, while other jurisdictions only allow skill-based gaming for specific types of games, such as video poker.
Another problem with conventional skill-based gaming solutions is that it is much harder to produce a game that allows a minimally skilled player to achieve a reasonable payback (and thus encourage them to continue playing), while preventing an exceptionally skilled player from achieving a payback that exceeds 100% of coin-in. Operators are understandably wary about deploying games that have the potential to lose money, and even if a skill-based game is developed that cannot exceed 100% return-to-player (RTP), it must still be able to compete with other games on the casino floor in terms of overall profit for the operator.
While gaming machines including feature games have been very successful, there remains a need for games that provide a player with enhanced excitement and increased opportunity of winning. In particular, there remains a need for a game that enables a player to exercise their skill while the amount and frequency of prizes awarded through conventional means, such as a random number generator, are still completely controlled.